How about proclivity, if I’ve done this one before I swear Today’s Word will be End and I’ll quit only got like 3 readers anyway…

Nope never did proclivity.

Wait, am I using that word right? Of course I am.

*googles to make sure*

Ooh I like how penchant sounds better…maybe I should flip a coin to decide. (I never carry change)

*downloads coin flip app*

Okay now I’m just stalling…wait, what was I writing about?

Writers. We’re all weird.

Now to our feature presentation…]

So I don’t go no type. Bad bitches is the only thing that I like. Skinny, plenty, black, white, I date who I’m interested in and who’s available at the time. So I was talking to a friend about a crush of hers and how she felt she had a good shot because his ex wasn’t overly attractive. I found this development interesting because had she never seen her she would likely be intimidated because she would assume he was into, well, not her. It’s a normal fear that comes with any hey booing, you never know what they like and if you qualify. However, seeing an actual representation of someone they would date and presumably find attractive, there you actually have someone to compare yourself to. It was interesting to hear this come from a woman and if this was common, the idea that you would be more attracted to someone based on their type.

As someone who occasionally has thought themselves out of approaching someone, I wonder if I would be more or less inclined, even subconsciously, to approach that same person if they dated someone who looked like Gucci Mane. Would I be turned off or would self assurance kick in like ” psssh, I can do that”. What if her ex was like Idris Songz (or whomever y’all man crush Mondays be these days) would I still be filled with that same bravado? Probably. I’m fly. Seriously, I would like to think I’ve never self disqualified; I’d like to think most people are as random as I am with preferences. Honestly, I find it odd when someone has a strict “type” it just comes off as fetishized and dehumanizing (see: white women who make it a point to note that all they’ve ever liked was black guys, black guys who are all about latinas and can’t tell the difference between Puerto Rican and Salvadoran).

Enter social media, where you don’t even have to try and project what their interests are and who they be with, you can just see it for yourself. Your “competition” for lack of a better word is right there. Every ex, bae, boo or suitor in a scouting report curated by Mark Zuckerburg and the good folks over at Roc-a-Fella records. My social media is frustratingly boring, so I’ve been told, so one would just have to ask me (like they’ve done a million times), I’m just going to describe them and smile (like I’ve done a million times) because it really wouldn’t matter if my “type” was exotic instamodels, and hers were 6’5 lightskinneds there we would be together so we would both be full of shit. (Or we would just be…typos *cue rimshot*).

I guess my point here is that type or proclivity doesn’t matter much. Spoiler alert, we tend to say one thing and do another (pun intended). The confidence boost more or less a placebo, stepping to someone because you think you finer than their ex be advised, results may vary.